This is a photo of the letterhead portion from one of the (typed and signed) letters that our eldest brother wrote to me when he was still living and based in New York City as a professional musician.
You can visit the link to his website above to learn more about his significant musical career, professional accomplishments, and biography.
He was a dozen years older than me so I was a baby most of the time during his childhood. We literally didn’t grow up together like I did with those among my siblings who are closer to me in age. We were both born in Olathe, Kansas.
PHOTO: Richie (left) Me (right) after his homecoming.
However, I was ultimately able to develop a very great relationship with my oldest brother as an adult largely because we were both professional musicians and we had that in common beyond just having the same mother. We grew to be close.
He was a great mentor, friend and big brother to me who was also able to fill in lots of the natural gaps in my exact middle child understanding and factual knowledge of some important aspects of our family’s history along with sharing his vast music industry experience.
VIDEO: End Credits of Stardust Memories (1980) Woody Allen film
The man was a superstar among all of us in the family. And he was a kind person. He wasn’t a saint of course. He was a NCAA Division I college scholarship athlete in his youth, so it’s easy to imagine that he wasn’t a push over in any regard.
A true standard bearer. He was based in New York City and worked at the highest levels of the music industry for decades. The competitiveness of people in the entertainment business didn’t change him. I don’t recall ever hearing him utter a bad word about anyone regardless if he experienced any lack of integrity.
He recorded, toured, and performed with the A-list of professionals.
PHOTO: L/R – Me, Jesse Newman, Richie, Curtis McClinton and our 3 eldest grandchildren from our daughter.
He lived in a nice neighborhood in Manhattan on West 87th Street where I actually got to visit him once when he was the drum soloist on Broadway for “Sophisticated Ladies,” conducted by Duke Ellington’s son, Mercer. He got me into the show.
VIDEO: Sophisticated Ladies (1981) Broadway Musical cast at Tony Awards
All of this to say that although everyone has to make their own way in life and to be successful, you have to do the work to open the doors yourself, it’s so encouraging to have a pathfinder in your life.
Nobody can give musical career success to you but having a family member who legitimately achieved success at the highest levels is priceless. At least it has been so for me personally.
Our eldest brothers: Nate (left) and Richie (right, after his homecoming.)
How?
Well (1) I could ask him how the business works and he would tell me the truth;
(2) if I was dealing with someone or a situation in an industry-related matter or concern, I could bounce it off of him for his valid opinions with confidence;
and, (3) he taught me that in the final objective analysis of the music business at the world class level the importance of always being a master of your art and craft as a professional musician is the number one objective barometer.
VIDEO ALBUM: It was cool that I was ultimately able to help my brother publish “OLATHE” his own solo album
My brother showed me that the “American Dream” still exists for all of us if we look for it inside ourselves first then focus our honest efforts on using our talents positively.
The way he lived his life also proves that people can go through difficult personal challenges in life with kindness, grace, and dignity without hate.
He’s truly a history maker in the literal sense of the term and those who biologically follow in the continuum and/ or acknowledge a connection to our related family line should also know who he was and what he did to pave the way.
PHOTO: 7 West 87th Street (Upper West Side Manhattan), NY, NY today.
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MUSINGS IN Cb
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
Musicians seem to always be “seeking to understand,” not necessarily to be understood. And I think that’s healthy. We’re all at different stages of development and purpose. We’re often with people and yet we are essentially always alone. We come here alone and we will leave alone.
“FINALLY” (Is Never Permanent…) DEMO Composed and Arranged By Christopher Burnett (BMI)
ALWAYS
I am finishing up the arrangement of a new composition for my “originals” quartet, titled, “ALWAYS” and made a discovery that literally changed the entire work. This discovery was simply a chord that I substituted for the more common harmonic choice I’d originally written. The substitute chord says the same thing but with a lot more room for creative possibilities. It should be more fun for all of us to improvise over the progression too.
“ALWAYS” (Is Never Giving Up…) DEMO Composed and Arranged By Christopher Burnett (BMI)
MAYBE
I couldn’t be more thankful for the work that I do at this stage of my career. I’m composing and arranging music for three very different ensembles. I’m doing some pretty cool work as an educator and clinician that’s valued by the community. Once a person finds their calling and purpose, the complexities of life remain, but are taken better in context. That’s the validated treasures of living to many decades of age and having quality life experiences.
“MAYBE” (It Is or Is Not…) DEMO Composed and Arranged By Christopher Burnett (BMI)
INFINITY
Terri Anderson Burnett and I have been a family for many decades. She’s actually my “family.” We eventually learned that our spouse is our family and our children are really only loaned to us for a relatively short time. I call it life before and after kids in your home. It’s never the same as when they were growing up as little kids because it isn’t supposed to be. My family has worked very hard this entire time to be at every particular place in our life together we’ve ever been so far and it’s always fluid – never permanent. We raised our children to adulthood. We have grown from both good and not-so-good events. I still love and value her.
“INFINITY” (Is The Reality…) DEMO Composed and Arranged By Christopher Burnett (BMI)
LATER
You are blessed if your children grow up to be productive members of society and good people. Anything more in the continuum of life is a true bonus. Fragmented families are common for various reasons like simple incompatibility and complex mental illness. But, if you and your spouse are truly best friends you can endure all of these changes and set an example of how it can be done positively. At least that is what we continue to learn. We’re blessed and thankful. We are living in a territory as a couple that nobody else who is still alive on either side of our family has experienced. We have never given up on each other and we never quit on our family. We accept that we cannot control the negative motivations or feelings of others and we also do not let such dysfunctional situations derail the overwhelmingly positive course of our life together. We are blessed and our faith tells us all things work together.
“LATER” (Is Better Than Never…) DEMO Composed and Arranged By Christopher Burnett (BMI)
YESTERYEARS
Those who also know these things from actually living them over the years can also attest to the fact that it’s a very complex yet very cool place to be in life. But we don’t expect many to understand until they get here. And that’s really not the point anyway. The point is to never give up. All of these realities are compositionally poured into this original music.
“YESTERYEARS” (Bring Our Todays…) DEMO Composed and Arranged By Christopher Burnett (BMI)
ORIGINALS QUARTET
This is a photo of all of the new music that I have composed and arranged for our new ORIGINALS 4tet that debuts on Tuesday March 28 as the final concert of the 2023 season noontime spring jazz series at the Midwest Trust Center on the campus of JCCC. I will be performing on alto saxophone with the multi-talented William Crain on piano, the master bassist Gerald Spaits, and the brilliant young drummer Morgan Rogers. The mockup audio demos posted to this blog are the first set of compositions for our group. I actually wrote and arranged all of this music with each of these quartet musicians’ artistry in mind and to record an album.
THIS MUSIC IS BASED UPON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ABUNDANCE (COVEY)
Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help in the production. They also have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the successes of other people – even, and sometimes especially, members of their own family or close friends and associates. Conversely, Abundance Mentality flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.
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MUSINGS IN Cb
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
AN HUMBLE ARTICLE OF PRAYER SUBMITTED FOR THANKSGIVING
I grew up in a sibling family of leaders. We Burnett siblings were all taught by both of our parents to be independent in almost all things from a young age. And that was tangibly reinforced as each of us saw among the others of us the various stages of each one growing toward being the independent people our parents were hopefully training back then. Again, Mom Burnett used to say “you never know what type of person you are raising, you just do your best and hope.”
Music is among the most objectively honest things a person can do in life. You can either do it or you can’t do it yet. And neither condition is a permanent state of being.
I had four brothers and four sisters whom I got to know personally while growing up. Yes, there were nine of us children who had lived beyond birth. Our sibling birth years range from 1943 to 1964 a span of over 20 years. I am a late Baby Boomer, the exact middle in that birth order with two older brothers and two older sisters, and two younger sisters and two younger brothers.
That means our mother literally had school-age children from the age of 19 until she was 59 years old. Think about being nearly 60 and attending your youngest child’s high school graduation ceremony. Wow. Different times and societal eras.
Our two eldest brothers were NCAA DIV 1 varsity scholarship athletes.
And although there are literally two generations contained within my sibling family cohort, our parents must have done a great job raising us because I don’t recall any of my siblings ever being purposefully divisive, troublemakers, or liars against one another in order to gain favor or approval. Sibling rivalries, yes. Dustups and scraps, yes. But maliciousness, or vengeful intentions, no.
We each maintained a level of character and decency as we had been purposely taught by our parents and elders that was based on the “Golden Rule” and other standard biblical principles. That doesn’t mean any of us were or are perfect.
I grew up attending St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Paola, Kansas.
I heard my mother say on numerous occasions that if “something” ever happened to her, we’d be able to successfully fend for ourselves competently. She succeeded in that goal and all of us were equipped to live lives of quality. But it was and has always been up to us and our own choices. That’s key.
During this process parents inherently piss off their children. Most people have heard such parental lamentations like: “this hurts me more than it does you” and “you may not understand now but you will later.”
Every year my high school class still gets together for a reunion in the town where we all grew up.
As leaders, we were inherently taught how to deal with “bullies” of all types. We learned that bullies could be friends and strangers of course, but also among the people in your family and inclusive of other dear loved ones.
We learned all of this BEFORE we left our sibling home to make our own paths as autonomous adults in the world at large. I don’t recall ever hearing of someone taking advantage of (or deceiving) any one of my siblings by catching them unaware of such nonsense no matter how things often look in the short or mid-terms of development. And we didn’t get into many physical altercations.
A pre-growth spurt picture with my 8th-grade basketball team. I was 5′ 2″ tall and started at point guard.
We were all taught to play the “long game” as you do in chess.
Some lessons eventually stuck with us as base character traits. We were taught “right from wrong” and we didn’t act like it was someone else’s fault whichever of those we chose to do in a given situation or circumstance. At least we didn’t try to do that within our sibling family or in the company of close family friends because we knew someone or everyone would call it out.
Morning coffees with T 💕
Terri’s Anderson sibling family lived parallel to the Burnett sibling family ethos described here. I also observed how both of her parents interacted with her as an adult. T was groomed to be a refined lady and musical artist.
Professional photo shoot in T’s Office Studio
When she and I became our own branch of the family in 1979, we intentionally raised our two children to hopefully be confident leaders. And ethical people. However, we have learned that what they actually become is largely on them.
All of this “tough love talk” actually does take into account that we all get to a place in life where we’re beset by serious challenges that can hurt us to the literal point of permanent damage or actually kill us prematurely.
Thanksgiving and Homecoming with our eldest.💕
Visiting our youngest and her family in England.💕
These are among the “old people lessons” that my mother Violet and Terri’s mother Sintha used to try to give us forewarning of before we became parents of adult children. At some point, you have to let your children stand on their own. And sometimes they won’t like it. Sometimes they will get over it and sometimes they won’t, or at least it might take some living with their own adult children to come to terms with how their own parents have been previously judged. We have already learned that one.
Even though we are successful adults and successful parents with a family of our own by most of those common metrics, and Google searches didn’t exist back then, I was still actually mature enough to know that I was not my parents’ friend or peer – no matter how old I got. It doesn’t work like that in Black culture. I know that showing elders such respect actually doesn’t diminish me in reality, it shows that I can be counseled and taught.
We were fortunate to find out we were musicians.
Sometimes we parents can overprotect to the point of spoiling certain aspects of the development of our children. We all do it no matter how much we try not to make the mistakes with our own children that our parents did with us.
But I do know that I have yet to see anyone who practices evil deeds succeed in this life over the long term. Likewise, reciprocity is simply meted out to balance such extremely warped souls who think that they have all of the answers until they don’t. Sometimes we need such checks and balances to provide a path toward healing.
I come from a noble line of people and am proud to carry on my family’s heritage.
I have learned that familial love isn’t about keeping score. And it is a sad perversion when that type of mentality enters into family dynamics on any level. Weaponizing the Internet to “troll” or “bully” one’s family is comical to someone of my generation because people my age don’t actually need technology as a definitive part of our daily lives like that.
And in an age when you can literally search the Internet on your device until you find something (and you will) that validates or justifies your position, regardless of the topic, the possibility of miscommunication among loved ones is amplified.
We’ve done pretty well for two professional musicians who also became a family in our twenties.
This simply shows a lack of character, or a moral lapse in the least, and the hilariously incompetent use of a potentially marvelous communication tool. It’s like the unintentionally malicious use of email to send stupid chain letters that you didn’t compose to all of your friends without using the Bcc feature to hide their email addresses. Except on purpose.
Starting fights with me or “ghosting” me from behind computer or smartphone screens is like someone cursing me out in a language I don’t understand or speak. You really told me off, but did you? So, using a “meme” as the basis of the title of this article is sort of ironic.
I think the reason that I truly don’t buy into the hype of all that is because I learned enough lessons while growing up and know the difference between doing what is “right and wrong” at the core of my being. I know that hate never wins. I will not practice hate regardless of the situation. I will choose to leave you alone rather than hate you. Hopefully, peace will win.
Having lived long enough now to have been with some fine people at the ends of their lives and witnessing that to a person each one stated in their own vernacular and words essentially that life isn’t about winning argumentsor one’s own selfish pursuits.
THANKSGIVING: We always have more to be thankful for than not. We all need the help of others.
Each day is a new opportunity to do something positive and use your talents for good. You might have the opportunity to help someone else help themselves to get through one more day and not give up.
We can usually overcome being imperfect humans and mend family relationships even if mental illness, alcoholism, or substance abuse are part of the dynamics that we need to mend. However, we are not to let ourselves be abused by such wounded spirits no matter if they are embedded within people we love deeply.
LIFE: You either quit or keep going. They both hurt. Read that again.
